A long-rumored
Space Vision from the White House did materialize on January 14, 2004,
with President Bush's announcement of a critical turn in the US policy
in space. NASA was ordered to prepare for the return of US astronauts
to the Moon and for the establishment of a base there, which could serve
as a launching point for the expedition to Mars. However, unlike similar
proposals in the past, the effort would be conducted at the expense
of the Space Shuttle program and the US involvement
in the International Space Station.

In the
immediate aftermath of the announcement, the Bush space plan generated
considerable criticism and ridicule
in the US media and among general public. However the Bush administration,
and the Republican leadership in the US Congress continued bulldozing
the program, promptly renamed "Vision for Space Exploration"
through the resistance of fiscal conservatives within its own party.
On November 2, 2004, President Bush, won a second term in office, essentially
insuring the survival of the program for at least four more years. Within
weeks, NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe, who was originally appointed
by the Bush Administration to fix the agency's financial policies, resigned
from his post.

Shuttle:
A Long Demise (Reasons for the cancellation of the ISS, Shuttle)

In the
immediate aftermath of the January 2004 decision, observers spelled
out several reasons for retiring the Shuttle. The Columbia tragedy only
few months earlier was cited as the primary reason. In fact, the fate
of the worlds first reusable transportation system was essentially
sealed almost 18 years earlier, on January 28, 1986, when the Space
Shuttle Challenger exploded in the skies over the Atlantic. The first
Shuttle tragedy shattered NASA hopes for establishing cheap and routine
access to the Earth orbit to fulfill a multitude of commercial, military
and scientific goals. In the wake of the Challenger disaster, NASA abandoned
plans for making the Shuttle an economically viable system, however
committed to fund the program for the national goals. Heightened safety
measures, reduced payload capabilities and slowed pace of launches turned
the Shuttle into a white elephant, consuming a large chunk of the NASA
budget. By the end of the 1990s, the International Space Station and
Hubble Space Telescope remained the only programs, which required unique
capabilities of the Shuttle for orbital assembly and servicing. Ever
since the Challenger accident, observers have said that another tragedy
would spell the end of the Shuttle. That tragedy did strike on February
1, 2003, as the Space Shuttle Columbia, damaged in the critical area
of the wing during the launch, disintegrated as she was reentering the
Earth atmosphere.

Station:
an orphan with many stepmothers

In January
1984, President Ronald Reagan called for the creation of a permanent
human outpost in the Earth orbit. A multi-billion-dollar project, which
later evolved into the International Space Station, was advertised by
NASA, as the next logical step in the human conquest of space, as a
unique platform for scientific research and the ultimate high ground
for international cooperation.

However,
from the outset, critics said that no science was justified by the price
tag of the program, and that, in fact, much more efficient research
could be accomplished onboard vibration-free unmanned spacecraft at
a fraction of a cost of the space station.

On top
of the science debate, political problems were piling up. A Russian
proverb says: "A child with seven nannies will end up without an
eye." An unprecedented international nature of the project turned
out to be its strength as well as its weakness. Although partners across
the world had been able to pull together money, hardware and brains
to accomplish the project, the station seemingly lacked national identity
needed to energize political support among participating nations. The
Cold War dinosaurs on both sides of the Atlantic tirelessly pummeled
the project for its real and imaginary ills. In Russia, nationalists
of all sorts, scolded the Russian space industry for becoming a "chauffeur"
of the US space agency and sacrificing Russias Mir space station
for the benefit of the US-controlled program. In the US, columnists
and politicians criticized NASA for allowing Russians into the
critical path in the program, for its astronomical cost overruns
and for endless circling the globe in the aluminum Tinkertoy.
To make matters worse, the partners in the ISS project kept bickering
about rather trivial matters, such as allowing paying passengers to
visit the station, thus poisoning the atmosphere around the project.
Back on Earth, politics also dragged the program down. The US Congress
essentially made Russian space industry a scapegoat of the Kremlins
nuclear flirt with Iran, prohibiting NASA to purchase hardware and services
from Moscow. Finally, European-Russian opposition to the US invasion
of Iraq probably drove the last nail in the ISS coffin.

PLANETARY
EXPLORATION

During
2004, unmanned planetary probes achieved breathtaking results, although
often not fully appreciated by the media.

On January
2, 2004, Stardust flew within 236 kilometers of Comet Wild 2 and captured
thousands of particles in its aerogel collector for return on Earth
in January 2006. Findings from a historic encounter between NASA's Stardust
spacecraft and a comet have revealed a much stranger world than previously
believed.

Unmatched
imagery and wealth of other scientific data, including convincing evidence
of past salty seas, came from two NASA rovers, which successfully landed
and survived harsh conditions on the surface of Mars. These information
about Mars was complemented by two NASA probes and the European Mars
Express orbiting the planet.

In the
meantime, Cassini spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Saturn
and sent a European lander toward its mysterious moon Titan.

However,
Russian planetary program remain essentially stalled with a lonely Phobos-Grunt
project, still awaiting $25 million in federal funding and the launch
date in 2009.

Jan.
14: President George W. Bush announced the plan to resume manned
exploration of the Moon in 2020, to retire the Shuttle in 2010 and end
US involvement in the ISS program in 2016.
Quietly prepared by the administration which previously displayed little
interest in space program beyond cutting its budget, the new plan called
for the most extensive revamp in the history of NASA.

Jan.
15: NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit successfully drove off
its lander platform and onto the soil of Mars early today. The robot's
first picture looking back at the now-empty lander and showing wheel
tracks in the soil set off cheers from the robot's flight team at NASA's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Jan.
16: NASA officially abandoned plans to service and upgrade Hubble
Space Telescope, perhaps the most productive science spacecraft to date.
Although NASA justified the decision by a new concern about safety of
Shuttle crews, few believed the official explanation. (In the wake of
the Columbia accident, NASA has planned to use the space station as
a safe heaven for Shuttle astronauts in case of the critical damage
similar to one experienced by the Shuttle Columbia. The Shuttle missions
to service Hubble would not be able to reach the station.)

March
2: NASA announced at a special press conference at the agency's
headquarters in Washington DC that its scientists have concluded the
part of Mars that NASA's Opportunity rover is exploring was soaking
wet in the past.

March
2: Ariane-5G launches the Rosetta spacecraft toward Churyumov-Gerasimenko
comet. (Delayed by weather from Feb. 26 to Feb.
27, then by technical problems to March 2004)

March
27: NASA's second X-43A hypersonic research aircraft flew successfully
today, the first time an air-breathing scramjet powered aircraft has
flown freely. The unpiloted vehicle's supersonic combustion ramjet,
or scramjet, ignited as planned and operated for the duration of its
hydrogen fuel supply, which lasted about 10 seconds. The X-43A reached
its test speed of Mach 7.

One of the closest images of comet Wild 2 taken by NASA's Stardust spacecraft
in January 2004. Credit: NASA

Artist
rendering of the Mars Exploration Rover on the surface. Credit: NASA

An
artist's concept of the European Space Agency's Huygens Probe en route
to Titan after release from the NASA Cassini orbiter on Dec. 23, 2004.
Credit: NASA/JPL